A University of Michigan Rackham Interdisciplinary Workshop

Writing Group

The Digital Studies Workshop will host a Writing Group meeting to discuss the work-in-progress of our colleague Lia Wolock (Communication Studies), “Connectivity as Cultural Practice: Podcasting in the South Asian American Diaspora.”

When: Friday, Feb. 26th at 1:00pmWhere: 3773 Haven Hall

What (description of chapter):Media in the South Asian American diaspora underwent a dramatic shift in the 2000s as a slew of second-generation-driven collaborative digital media projects were developed, complementing the dominant practice of recirculating content from the subcontinent. The latter implied an audience looking back to a distant homeland; the new projects promoted a self-conscious idea of being South Asian American. Drawing on scholarship from diaspora studies, digital media studies, and, in particular, the literature on broadcast talk, this paper examines a South Asian American podcast to reveal the constant, mundane, and collaborative labor that goes into the creation and management of connectivity, in this case informed by a diasporic sensibility of connection-in-dispersion.